


Double Dare

by Headfulloffantasies



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: 5 Times, 5+1 Things, Truth or Dare, dares, sam kirk mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 06:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20003728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Headfulloffantasies/pseuds/Headfulloffantasies
Summary: Jim Kirk cannot refuse a dare. It’s hard wired into his DNA not to turn down those three words: I Dare You.





	Double Dare

1.  
Jim Kirk cannot refuse a dare. It’s hard wired into his DNA not to turn down those three words: I Dare You.  
His brother is responsible. Jim was six, a couple years before Frank walked into their lives. The golden years. He and Sam lay on their bellies in the Iowa summer, digging in the dirt. Jim poked at the squishy mud under his mother azaleas with a stick.   
Sam suddenly squealed. “Look! Jim look at this!”  
Jim leaned over to see. A coil of worm writhed in the soil. Jim was mesmerised by the way its body moved, undulating and liquid. He scooped it up. It was easily longer than his hand.   
Sam wrinkled his nose. “Ew. You gotta eat it, Jim.”  
“What?” Jim balked, watching the worm twist in his palm.  
“Eat it! Eat it!” Sam chanted. He stopped and squared his shoulders. “I dare you.”   
“I don’t wanna eat it,” Jim protested.  
“I dared you, now you gotta,” Sam grinned. “It’s law that you gotta do something if someone dares you.”  
Jim’s stomach twisted into a knot just like the worm in his hand. “What if I don’t?”  
Sam poked him irritably. “Then you’ll be a sissy your whole life. Come on! Eat it!”  
Jim lifted the worm and tipped it into his mouth. The worm squished between his teeth. Sam cheered when Jim threw up.

2.  
There was of course the dare Pike gave him. To do better than George Kirk. It was Jim who upped the anti. Three years to complete command track. There were days in his Academy dorm, at two in the morning studying on the fumes of energy drinks and ramen, that Jim thought this was going to be the dare that broke him. Maybe even killed him, if he was being dramatic.   
Seven years later, well into their five year mission, Jim still wasn’t sure he won that dare. Could he really call himself better than his father? The tally of lives saved grew bigger every year, but so did the losses. 

3.  
The trash compactor wasn’t working. Why this was Jim’s problem, he didn’t know, but here was in the annals of his ship, staring down at the mountain of trash that the replicator’s recycler refused to process.   
Scotty was poking at a panel and scratching his head while Lieutenant Award explained to Jim what was going on.  
“Over here’s the compost bins,” Award led Jim to the green containers as high as his shoulder. “Most of this ends up in the greenhouses as fertilizer.”  
“It certainly smells like fertilizer,” Jim choked.  
Award nodded solemnly. “There’s something in here that’s jamming everything, sir. Only we can’t figure out what. The mechanism works when the bins are empty, but obviously, we need to fill them.”  
Jim checked the input valve at the back of the containers. He followed it to the plastic recycling bin. A red light flashed on the valve for the plastic intakes.   
“Something’s wrong here,” he mumbled. “Why is the plastic being affected by compost?”  
Jim straightened. “We need to get to the bottom of this bin.”  
Scotty hurried over. “The release for the plastics is jammed. We can’t empty it automatically. It’ll have to be manual.”  
“Of course it will,” Jim sighed.  
“Dare you to go first,” Scotty joked, nudging Jim in the ribs.  
He shrugged and hopped over the side, landing in a pile of junk. “I always knew I was a piece of trash, Mr. Scott. This is exactly where I belong.”

4.  
He was a captain, he shouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place. But Jim needed a chance to unwind after a near miss. There was a party in engineering, flowing with booze. Exactly like the bottle of glowing blue Sulu waved in front of Jim’s face.  
“It’s Andorian,” Sulu grinned. “I dare you to drink it all.”  
The dare wasn’t even directed at Jim. Sulu wouldn’t broach protocol like that. The dare had been issued to a knot of ensigns, barely out of cadet-hood. They dubiously stared at the liquid sloshing back and forth.   
Jim’s hands started itching the second Sulu said the magic words. Dares couldn’t be left undone. It messed with the balance of the universe. And, ok, maybe Jim had had enough to drink already if was waxing poetic about dares. Didn’t matter. He couldn’t leave it alone.   
“I’ll do it,” Jim snatched the bottle from Sulu and chugged it back. It burned all the way down and lit a fire in his guts. Jim smacked his lips. His throat was still burning. Like it was crawling with ants.   
“Did you say this was Andorian?”  
Sulu nodded mutely. The ensigns stared in awe.  
Jim nodded and spun on his heel. “I’m going to medbay. Tell Bones to come find me if I’m not there in five minutes.”  
“What?” Sulu spluttered.  
Jim’s fingers and toes went numb. “I’m allergic!” He yelled as he started sprinting.

5.  
“Truth or Dare?”  
“Dare.”  
It wasn’t fair that Jim’s favourite game was considered something for horny teenagers. He loved a challenge, any kind. And he loved surprising people by finishing even the most ridiculous tasks.   
Uhura pursed her glittery lips. Jim loved shore leave for the specific reason that he got to see what his crew chose to dress like when they weren’t actively part of Starfleet. Uhura’s red miniskirt, for example, was a surprise.   
It had been Jim’s idea to have some of his senior staff over for drinking games. His shore leave apartment was big enough for three times the number of people who had showed up. Scotty, Spock, Bones, Nurse Chapel, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura had answered his invitation.   
“You can’t do Dare,” Uhura said. “You did Dare last turn.”  
“Why are we playing children’s games?” Bones grumbled.  
“Shh. Have a drink.” Scotty answered.  
“Fine,” Jim rolled his eyes. “Truth.”  
Uhura smirked. “What is Jim Kirk’s greatest fear?”  
Jim swallowed hard. Fear knew Jim intimately. They were old pals. It took many faces for Jim. There was Frank, Nero, and Khan to start with. But they only scared Jim at night, in his sleep, when he forgot they were long buried. Then there was the fear without faces. Hunger, loss, pain. He learned most of those from Kodos, and nope, nope, not going there.  
“I’m using my captaincy to veto. Give me a Dare.”  
Uhura protested, “You were the one who said leave rank at the door.”  
“Give me a Dare,” Jim ground out.   
“I’ll give you a Dare,” Bones snapped. “I Dare you to pick another game. You’re all infants.”

+1  
Four crew dead. Seven in medical. The bastard that did it bleeding on the floor. Blood on Jim’s knuckles. His entire being boiled down to these facts. The engine room hummed around them, the sound of the ship’s breathing calming Jim. She was still flying. He got there in time. Killian didn’t get the bomb in place. It was over.  
“I’m not done yet, Jim Kirk,” Killian groaned from the floor. His stupid goatee was drenched in blood. Satisfaction sparked in Jim’s chest knowing that he put Killian’s jaw out of socket. He had never been more murderous. The heap of filth on the floor almost killed Chekov, Sulu, Uhura. Bones was still down.   
“You are done,” Jim ground out. “You’re going to the brig, and then to face Starfleet judgement.”  
Killian let out a wet laugh. “That won’t stop me. Nothing will. I will be your nightmare.”  
Security arrived, their reassuring red crowding into the space. Jim turned away, done talking to this scumbag.  
“You should kill me.” Killian coughed, “I dare you to do it.”  
Jim stopped cold. Killian wheezed on the floor.   
Jim didn’t even bother glancing at him. “No, I don’t think I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Come talk to me on tumblr @ headfulloffantasies


End file.
